The Christian Victory Prayer Ministry (CVPM) Worldwide has urged Enugu State government to engage in industrial agriculture as part of measures to create jobs for youths in the state.
The General Overseer of the church, Pastor Dan Obinegbo, made the call on Tuesday while speaking with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the need to engage youths of the state meaningfully.
Obinegbo said that there was the need to curtail the number of teeming youths roaming the neighbourhoods aimlessly and put their energy and vibrancy into good use.
“When leaders complain about growing unemployment and restiveness among the youths; I see and discover that they are not tapping from historical experience.
“The farming industry remained the only industry that Nigeria as a country had done marvellously well, especially during the early days of the country.
“Then, it was competition among three federating regions on how to increase their outputs of cocoa for the west, palm oil for the east and groundnut for the north.
“Within few years; Nigeria became the major world exporter of these three cash crops.
“Today, the land used for the then exploits are still here with us; our weather and climatic condition have not changed.
“While there is better knowledge on how to grow these cash crops and new farm implements meant to help reduce labour, increased yield and preservation techniques are here with us.
“So, I expect the Enugu State Government to put the massive arable land in the state, which runs into tens-of-thousands of hectares of farmland to optimal use by making the state an industrial agriculture hub of the country.
“This hub should be fashioned to create thousands of direct jobs for youths between the ages of 20 to 40 years, the people in this age bracket are full of energy and zeal to drive the scheme,’’ he said.
According to him, the government can partner with renowned off-takers to ensure that the farm produce is bought under good competitive price.
“The state government can also be off-taker of the products itself and export directly to overseas and some African countries thus, creating more wealth for the state through export business,’’ he said.
